Keeping up with German

So you may have noticed the blog redesign... we're not 'on the road' anymore, so a few minor adjustments were needed. Hope you still like it (and want to read it!)

It was really helpful to spend a week speaking German. I felt that my skills improved just from that short but intense contact with the language. But now the trick is to keep it up! So...

A few months ago (actually, it may have been a Christmas gift), Jim ordered a book for me from Germany at my request. It's called "Mitternacht" (Midnight), written by Andreas Nohr:

My interest in this novel originated with its protagonist: a composer by the name of Nicolaus Bruhns. (If you followed the blog during our trip to Germany, you may remember the name.)

I fell in love with his music on first hearing. The bummer is, only a handful of his works have survived (or have come to light- let's remain hopeful that some more may be uncovered!)

Bruhns was a member of a  Lübeck musical dynasty, and studied with Dieterich Buxtehude. (Just as an aside, I've always wondered whether Thomas Mann may have been related to Nicolaus Bruhns, as his mother's maiden name was Bruhns.) 

Nicolaus was an incredibly gifted musician. An account of him tells how he would play the violin, and at the same time accompany himself at the organ on the pedals! I love to think of him as a teenager studying with Buxtehude, showing off in teenage fashion in exactly that way! 

So I came to learn of this book in one way or another, and thought that reading it might be a good way for me to improve my German. I should say "reading", since looking every third word up in the dictionary can hardly be called reading. Ah well- baby steps! 

Jim and I are also hoping to get some more conversation experience by hiring a native speaker of German to come over and talk with us a couple of times a month. Jim found someone advertising that service on our neighborhood email list, and as soon as he digs that out of the archives, we'll make contact.